


I Will Rise in Perfect Light

by AgateHearts



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Canon Compliant, Death, Feels, M/M, Sad, The Force
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-21
Updated: 2019-01-21
Packaged: 2019-10-13 17:08:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17491928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgateHearts/pseuds/AgateHearts
Summary: Chirrut's final moments are not a negation of his life, but an affirmation of all that he lived.





	I Will Rise in Perfect Light

Chirrut knew how he was going to die.  
  
He had known for a long time, in flashes and flares of light bursting through the Force, grasped images that were beyond the scope of what his eyes could see: blue and blue and blue, sky and water and dark paint on heavy cargo; green and green and green, plants so rich and wide and tall they baffled his sense of scale, life everywhere; gray and gray and gray, the glint of the cap of his staff, the muffled tone of a stolen ship, AT-ACT walkers crushing pale sand; red and red and red, the lining of his robes, the echo of color on Baze’s chest, Chirrut’s own blood spattered like tiny scattered crimson petals across his face.  
  
Chirrut knew how he was going to die, he had seen it, though his sight had gone permanently long ago. His second greatest fear was that he would miss the leading of the Force, the thread of the moment that would lead him to where he was supposed to be. His greatest fear was that he would forget to live his life until then; so he lived, in every moment that NiJedha sank lower, in every afternoon loitering with his alms bowl in the marketplace, in every kind and wise word he shared with the hurting, in every stupid joke he told that Baze threw his head back and laughed at, loud and free.  
  
Chirrut missed neither.  
  
There, on the beach, the switch thrown, the circuit complete, Chirrut was swallowed in peace. As he lay on his back, Baze’s voice calling him, muffled, raw, he reached up, out, trying—and Baze was there, and Baze took his hand. Chirrut was not afraid of the darkness he had walked in for most of his life, for he had always truly lived in the Light. “Look for the Force, and you will always find me.” He smiled, so sincere, so small, and as he faded fully into the Force he thought of the stars, and the love still beating in the hand that held his slackening one, and that he had done what the Force had made him to do.  
  
Chirrut did not fear the dark to come, for all the stars had hearts of kyber, and soon his love would be with him too.  
  
When the dark came, it was light.  
  
And Chirrut was not afraid.

**Author's Note:**

> The title references the poem "The Old Astronomer to His Pupil" by Sarah Williams: 
> 
> Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light;  
> I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.


End file.
